Reclaimed wood prep

[memzey]

Hi everyone. I've got some reclaimed pine boards I'd like to use for a project. It's not particularly grubby but undoubtedly has some dust and grit embedded in it. I was thinking about attacking it with a ROS or perhaps a hand planer before putting it through the planer thicknesser and I wondered how others prep their stock in similar situations?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Dan j]

If you're happy to sacrifice a set of planer blades then that's a quick/easy way to go. I've got a cheap old planer that i'm happy to use for grotty jobs.
Otherwise using an old saw blade in my table saw I set the fence to just take a skim off the surface.

 

[memzey]

Thanks Dan. My PT has a Tersa head so swapping out knives is not a drama although the current set are still sharp so don't particularly want to mangle them unnecessarily. If I had a belt sander I'd go at it with that but my nearest option is the ROS.

 

[lanemaux]

If it is not too dirty (sprouting bits of quartz and such) a rank set #5 will do nicely. Along with my uber-cheapy Japanese plane ,I also keep a junk #5 of no traceable origin for just such jobs. It's also a great construction adhesive remover!

 

[NazNomad]

lanemaux, I'm not much of a hand-tool geek, what does 'rank set' mean on a hand plane? I have an old one I could use as a sacrificial cleaning tool.

Cheers ... Mark

 

[lanemaux]

To be set rank is to remove greater thicknesses than the gossamer shavings so beloved by the Japanese. Your aim in planing rank is to remove a substantial shaving and get to the wood beneath fairly rapidly. Scrub planes are rank set by definition and remove chip-like wads of wood. A Jack plane with a blade with a steep radius and set for a deep cut will also scoop wood at a furious rate.

 

[Wuffles]

Thanks Dan. My PT has a Tersa head so swapping out knives is not a drama although the current set are still sharp so don't particularly want to mangle them unnecessarily. If I had a belt sander I'd go at it with that but my nearest option is the ROS.

I bought a dirt cheap belt sander (possibly £30?) for this type of thing, almost as a throwaway solution. It's still going strong 4 years later, so perhaps worth an investment?

 

[Ttrees]

A 5 1/2 plane is the best way hands down .
Wear some glasses if theirs thick varnish as it tends to fly into your eyes
If its really bad I use the back of an old handsaw ,like for cement and such .
Don't forget to check for nails though !

 

[adidat]

40 grit sanding disc on a grinder is the best method. Also makes any metal bits sparkle so easy to pull out etc. Had to strip 10m2 of pine flooring before boss would let me put it near the felder p/t took a few hours and discs are dirt cheap

Adidat

 

[NazNomad]

Thank you, lanemaux, I wasn't familiar with the lingo.

 

[No skills]

A few methods I use..

As adidat I sometimes use an angle grinder with a sanding disk - if you hunt round you can find p24 grit disks if the jobs really bad. This is for timber that's in really rough shape imo, it's very easy to gouge a big lump of wood out the board if your not careful.
A few times I've used a wire brush on an angle grinder on badly mucky wood.

A really cheap hand held electric planer, blades are cheap and it will do a lot of work unless you hit 5mm screws...

Belt sander with a 40 grit belt sanding across the grain for quicker stock removal.

Other than that I just buy some new wood...

 

[dickm]

if you weren't at the other end of that foreign country called England, you'd be welcome to borrow my Makita rotary brush - a beastie with a cylindrical wire brush rather like the sort of roller on a belt sander. Can be as aggressive or gentle as you like. Hire shop might have one? Last used mine for a whole load of maple flooring reclaimed from a mill in Dundee, so had years of grease, grit and grime embedded in the surface.

 

[No skills]

Always wanted to try one of those.

 

[Baldhead]

Wire brush first, belt sander then have a good old look at the surface.

Stew

 

[ED65]

If there's not that much of the pine I'd go with hand tools. The process is pretty fast and won't raise tons of dust, full of whatever nasties are on the wood.

I use a hand-held wire brush first to remove the worst of the grit. I keep two of these now, one specifically for use on dry wood and another for use on greasy things which I also use for knocking off loose rust from secondhand tools. After that I remove the surface with a roughing plane (scrub plane) working diagonally if necessary. If your boards happen to be very wide you can plane at 90° instead of 45°.

You have to be careful about spelching on the back edge planing across the wood like this, as you would if using a jack plane for the same purpose. To prevent this you can chamfer the back arris off or just live with it if you know you're going to be trimming a good bit from the edges.

 

[memzey]

Thanks guys. They are mainly 4x2's and 6x3's so width isn't a problem, I just wanted to get the worst of the crud off before I put them through the PT and wondered what others do in the same situation. If I had a belt sander I'd probably go with baldheads suggestion. An aggressive grit in a ROS should work the same but maybe take a bit longer right?